I want to run up a Tab, at the Bank

[TexasT]

I agree. It's the parent's job to teach this stuff.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I have for years felt that every high school student should spend a year in a class for Life Skills or something similar. Cooking - how to read a recipe (or at least directions on a package), how to use a stove; Sewing - how to sew on a button or repear a tear, how to do laundry; DIY - how to hang a picture, unclog a sink; Auto - how to pump gas, check fluids in a car, put air in the tires; and Finance - check writing, how bank accounts & insurance work, how to budget (and what needs to be budgeted for). Enough general knowledge for a person getting their first apartment (or even living in a dorm) to be able to manage the basics without major mishaps. And all of it for all sexes, it's amazing how many schools still try to teach home ec to girls and shop to guys. (I read of a school that simply changed the name of half of their home ec sewing/cooking classes to "Bachelor Living" and the class filled up with guys, LOL).

When that stuff starts appearing on the standardized tests that get given to school children, then they'll start teaching it. In the meantime, it falls under "on the job" training.

[XCashier]

I have for years felt that every high school student should spend a year in a class for Life Skills or something similar.

Agreed. All of your suggestions are very good, and very important skills for both genders to have. (Check out this article on Cracked.com! I think you'd like it.)

My parents taught me many things, including how to use a checking account, but there are still a lot of things I didn't really learn until I was older. And I still regret not taking my dad's advice to take high school auto shop; that would've saved me a lot of money.

[Raveni]

Auto - how to pump gas, check fluids in a car, put air in the tires.

Working at C-store, it was unbelieveably sad (no sarcasm, honestly) how many widows I had to teach how to pump gas or put air in their tires. That they would get so far in life, have to bear the loss of their spouses, and then be totally unprepared for daily life on their own... Presumably, many of them had never paid the family's bills either...


Now the tourists from New Jersey...

[TheRabbi]

Now the tourists from New Jersey...

Even after about 15 years of going to visit my dad in New Jersey, it still knocks me a bit off-kilter when he pulls up to a gas station and just waits until the person comes and pumps the gas.

(For those who don't know: it's illegal to pump your own gas in New Jersey. All the stations are effectively full service.)

[blas]

I don't even know what's worse....people who just never learned how to manage a checking account, or people who knowingly float or bounce checks until they face legal charges.

Warning: about Drunken Victim, the coworker of mine everyone loves to hear about.

Once he finally came back to work, he spent half of the week telling everyone how he had to float a check for gas/smokes at a gas station (sister store to where I used to work, they don't have Telechek or a real system, they do it old school and it takes a few days to process, despite depositing all their checks once per day) and then by the end of the week, he was screaming that he overdrafted because of a check he wrote to order new checks that he forgot about, right before payday (and why this idiot won't get direct deposit is beyond me) it was deducted and he went in the hole.

[protege]

Working at C-store, it was unbelieveably sad (no sarcasm, honestly) how many widows I had to teach how to pump gas or put air in their tires. That they would get so far in life, have to bear the loss of their spouses, and then be totally unprepared for daily life on their own... Presumably, many of them had never paid the family's bills either...

Sadly though, in many families...that's how it was. The woman's place was in the kitchen, and she wasn't "allowed" to be involved with finances. Because of that, many women had no idea how it all worked. It's very sad, but things were different then.

My grandmother was one of those women. Her family, along with my grandfather's...were very traditional. That is, the woman stayed home, raised the kids, kicked ass in the kitchen...while the husband took care of the car, plowed the fields, etc. That was how it was, how it had always been, and how it would always be. That is, until my grandfather died of a heart attack in '89...forcing my grandmother to learn how to balance her checkbook, pay the bills, get the home and car repaired, etc.

Of course, she had lots of help--family was close by, she used her late husband's "connections" at the bank, the garage, various stores, etc. Also helping, is that she *wanted* to learn how to do those things. She *refused* to have someone else wait on her.

[Andara Bledin]

I have for years felt that every high school student should spend a year in a class for Life Skills or something similar.

Isn't this supposed to be what home economics covers? Which is a class that should be absolutely mandatory for all kids. A lot more useful than most of the literature (as opposed to English) and social studies classes.

And I still regret not taking my dad's advice to take high school auto shop; that would've saved me a lot of money.

One of my aunts took shop in high school. They school didn't want to let her, but they weren't willing to outright refuse. But they did make it difficult. Girls had to wear skirts. Shop class students had to wear coveralls. So to take shop, she had to wear the skirt bunched up under the coveralls.

^-.-^

[blas]

I agree with protege, and I saw a lot of women like that when I worked at the gas station. Now, they rarely drove much, so you didn't always seem them often, but they'd come to fill the gas tank and didn't know how to pump gas. And if there weren't customers, I'd help, but there was always someone else around. I always had to try to guilt another customer into helping the old ladies pump their gas.

Most old women I have dealt with actually know how to balance a checkbook or manage money, but it's stuff like pumping gas or getting certain things for cleaning up the yard or snow that really boggles them.